Day 239: A Wander – Full Day

“Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.”
― Gary Snyder

Surprisingly there are still some shots from yesterday to share – an epic sunset and some creativity with a boat! So before I begin with today’s photographs I will share those. These were taken as the sun set last night, through the bedroom window.

The ‘Bokeh’ effect in the foreground comes from the fact that I shot through a window – it worked out quite nicely with the next couple of images but was tricky to capture in terms of lighting appropriately.

Exploring the local area is something I forget to do in favour of venturing further afield for the shots for the daily blog or indeed finding something around the house. But today was different and it was spent getting some a mixture of shots from a few of my favourite places.

The above was taken after a revisit to The Bunnies – a place that I’ve photographed a lot as part of this challenge. But I have tried to keep it varied! The Bunnies is a small lane joining two villages together and runs alongside the old sprat and winkle railway line.

I used HDR for the above image – anything else I shot had already been taken before but this provided a little bit of difference it seemed. The area was peaceful, and it was nice to spend a bit of time shooting photos properly – with a tripod and everything!

We ventured to Danebury with the dogs and had a brief wander around. The sun was very bright which meant that photos were a bit over-exposed therefore there isn’t too much to share. The attraction at Danebury was that one of the training groups from Middle Wallop over the back was dropping planes full of parachutists. However we kept missing the opportune moments and sadly didn’t get any snaps.

After Danebury we had a wander to Horseshoe Bridge. I haven’t photographed here before and hadn’t been for a long time. It used to be a popular swimming lake with local people  but now it’s a bit too dirty and a bit too shallow.

The lake around the bridge was beautiful in the sunlight and finding mushrooms and a mossy covering of ground made it quite photogenic. We spent a bit of time photographing here before finally concluding the day and heading home.

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Day 215: Otterbourne

I used to think it too small to spend a life in, but now I’m not so sure.”
― Mary Kelly

I stopped at a small village called Otterbourne during my travels today in order to snap away for the blog. I was feeling pretty uninspired up until the moment that I happened across a very pretty little church. Otterbourne is named after the stream on which it lies – the Otter Bourne – and is located near Winchester in Hampshire.

Otterbourne had a famous occupant over the years being home to novelist Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823 – 1901) who published more than one hundred novels. However other than this, there really isn’t that much to the History of the place in terms of landmark occasions and notifiable residents. However Sir Isaac Newton lodged in a house there for some time during his life – which is quite impressive!

But it is a pretty, quiet and quaint place. I’m aiming to go back purely to photograph the pub – it looks beautiful from the outside! I didn’t spend long enough capturing the Church either so there’s something to do on a less rainy day.

With a population of only around 1600 (2002 census) it’s quite easy to feel like the place is pretty much deserted but just enough to fill up a post for day 215!

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